The Secret Garden / Таинственный сад

At that very moment such a loud sound of wailing [6 - wailing – вопль, причитание] broke out from the servants' quarters that she clutched [7 - clutch – схватить, ухватиться] the young man's arm, and Mary stood shivering from head to foot. The wailing grew wilder and wilder. “What is it? What is it?” Mrs. Lennox gasped.

“Some one has died,” answered the boy officer. “You did not say it had broken out among your servants.”

“I did not know!” the Mem Sahib cried.

“Come with me! Come with me!” and she turned and ran into the house.

After that, appalling things happened, and the mysteriousness of the morning was explained to Mary. The cholera had broken out in its most fatal form and people were dying like flies. The Ayah had been taken ill in the night, and it was because she had just died that the servants had wailed in the huts [8 - hut – барак]. Before the next day three other servants were dead and others had run away in terror.

There was panic on every side, and dying people in all the bungalows.

During the confusion of the second day Mary hid herself in the nursery and was forgotten by everyone. Mary alternately cried and slept through the hours. She only knew that people were ill and that she heard and frightening sounds. Once she crept into the dining-room and drank a glass of wine. Very soon it made her intensely drowsy. She lay down on her bed and fell asleep.

Many things happened during the hours in which she slept so heavily, but she was not disturbed by the wails and the sound of things being carried in and out of the bungalow.

When she awakened she lay and stared at the wall. The house was perfectly still. She had never known it to be so silent before. She heard neither voices nor footsteps, and wondered if everybody had got well of the cholera and all the trouble was over. She wondered also who would take care of her now her Ayah was dead.

There would be a new Ayah, and perhaps she would know some new stories. Mary had been rather tired of the old ones. She did not cry because her nurse had died. She was not an affectionate [9 - affectionate – любящий, нежный] child and had never cared much for any one. The noise and hurrying about and wailing over the cholera had frightened her, and she had been angry because no one seemed to remember that she was alive.